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THF    COUTTTRY   CHURCH 


»      *      •      9 


Volume  3 


4 


V.  3 


Federal  council  of  the  churches  of  Christ  in 
America,  What  every  church  should  know  about 
its  community. 

General  Association  of  Congregational  Churches 
of  Massachusetts «  Advance  reports  of  various 
committees,  1908  and  1909 

McElfresh,  F.  The  country  Sunday  school 

MclTutt,  M.  B.  Modern  methods  in  the  country  church 

McNutt ,  Ml.  B,  A  post-graduate  school  with  a  jjurpose 

Massachusetts  Federation  of  Churches,  Quarterly, 
"bulletin.  Pacts  and  factors.  October  1910 
"The  part  of  the  church  in  rural  progress  as 
discussed  at  the  Amherst  Conference," 

Root,  ]E»  T.  State  federations 

Taft,  A.  B,  The  mistress  of  the  rural  manse 

Taf t ,  A.  B»  The  tent  mission 

Taylor  J  G*   Basis  for  social  evangelism  with  rural 
apx^lications 

Wells,  G«  F»  An  answer  to  the  l^ew   England  country 
church  question. 

Wells,  G«  F»  TOat  our  country  churches  need 

Wilson,  W«  H.  The  church  and  the  transient 

Wilson,  ¥.  H«  Conservation  of  boys 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church 

Wilson,  W.  H.  The  country  church  program 

Wilson,  W,  H.  Don*t  breathe  on  the  thermometer 

Wilson,  W,  H.  The  farmers*  church  and  the  farmers* 
t2  college 

CO    Wilson,  W.  H.  Getting  the  worker  to  church 

0- 
LU 
W 


Wilson,  W,  H.  The  girl  on  the  farm 

liT'ilsonj  W.  H.  How  to  manage  a  country  life 
institute 

Wilson,  ¥/.  H»  "Marrying  the  land." 

Wilson,  W.  H.  tTo  need  to  "be  poor  in  the  country 

Wilson,  W.  H.  Synod's  opportunity 

Wilson,  W»  H.  What  limits  the  rural  Evangel 


4   »   3   9  3  »  » 


The  church,,  and  country  life.  Pamphlet  issued 
"by  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  of  the  Preshy' 
terian  Church* 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Boston  Library  Consortium  IVIember  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/howtomanagecount03wils 


asRS?^?^as?sasasasaaBsssass.aasas£8Ba^B!SBsss»^SJsa^ 


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How  to  Manage  a  i 
Country  Life  Institute   I 

By  WARREN  H.  WILSON  i 


'npO  manage  well  means  to  take  care  of  all  details. 
-■-It  takes  a  minister  a  long  time  to  learn  that  some- 
thing besides  good  ideas  are  needed.  Excellent 
plans  are  dependent  upon  care  of  details  for  the  out- 
come. Spiritual  service  is  exercised  in  small  par- 
ticulars upon  the  perfection  of  which  the  whole 
enterprise  depends.  Jesus  said  about  these  things: 
"Ye  shall  be  perfect,  as  your  Heavenly  Father  is 
perfect." 

Country  Life  Institutes  are  rural  schools  of  reli- 
gion. There  is  great  need  of  them  just  now  for  the 
training  of  the  religious  people  of  a  neighborhood  in 
the  doing  of  God's  work.  Social  service  can  be  car- 
ried on  through  leaders  and  followers,  but  only  when 
the  method  of  leadership  and  of  obedience  is  per- 
fectly worked  out.  There  is  a  great  demand,  there- 
fore, for  community  meetings,  country  church  con- 
ferences, rural  institutes  and  town  schools  of  religion. 
A  good  many  of  those  attempted  fail.  Success  de- 
pends upon  the  way  it  is  done.  We  have  the  ideas 
and  the  knowledge  in  hand.  We  have  the  speakers 
and  the  spirit,  but  these  all  fall  short  if  certain  things 
are  neglected.  The  first  of  these  is  time.  A  school 
of  religion  for  a  community  should  be  at  least  a  day 
in  length,  preferably  two  days  and  in  some  instances 
a  week.  For  such  a  continued  impression  a  long 
time  of  preparation  is  necessary.     Two  months  is  not 


>  long  a  preparation  for  such  a  meetiii^.  Adver- 
tising, a  solicitation  of  helpers,  securing  of  speakers, 
the  fitting  of  parts  together  to  make  a  whole,  the 
enlisting  of  a  solid  expectation  and  the  creating  of  an 
atmosphere  in  which  people  can  learn,  these  all  re- 
quire a  long  period  of  time.  The  mind  of  the  mana- 
ger himself  needs  leisure  in  which  to  digest  the  enter- 
prise in  order  that  it  may  be  perfectly  assimilated  by 
himself. 

The  money  for  such  an  enterprise  must  be  secured 
beforehand.  This  is  not  hard  to  do  in  any  commun- 
ity with  leadership.  Traveling  expenses  of  from 
five  to  fifteen  speakers  are  not  heavy  when  one  con- 
siders the  total  result  attained.  Such  a  country  life 
institute,  two  days  in  length,  has  as  much  value  to  a 
community  as  a  whole  course  of  lectures,  and  people 
will  subscribe  cheerfully  to  that  which  dignifies  the 
community.  However,  this  money  must  be  in  the 
pocket  of  the  treasurer  before  the  speakers  begin  to 
arrive.  Every  speaker  should  be  paid  before  he 
leaves  the  building  on  the  day  of  his  address.  The 
treasurer  should  be  in  full  command  of  his  part  of 
the  conference  and  embarrassed  by  no  lacking 
element  in  his  job. 

The  place  of  such  a  meeting  is  important.  It  is 
useless  to  attempt  to  get  country  people  into  some 
towns  or  cities.  "  Not  a  good  farmers'  town  "  is  a 
formula  which  has  killed  many  an  institute.  The 
town  being  selected  by  its  existing  favor  with  country 
folk,  the  building  itself  is  important.  It  is  well  for  a 
central  place  to  be  found.  Perhaps  the  sessions 
should  be  distributed  between  two  buildings.  It  is  a 
happy  circumstance  if  such  an  institute  have  the  use 
of  a  church  of  another  denomination  than  that  which 
leads  in  the  enterprise. 

The  room  in  which  a  country  church  conference  is 
held  is  an  important  detail.     It  should  not  be  too 


large  nor  too  small,  but  it  had  better  be  too  small 
than  too  large.  Such  a  conference  is  a  failure  if 
attended  by  less  than  twenty  people,  but  it  needs  no 
more  than  twenty  to  be  a  success;  so  that  a  church 
parlor  is  a  better  place  than  a  church  auditorium, 
unless  the  audience  is  so  large  as  comfortably  to  fill 
the  latter  place.  Then  the  atmosphere,  the  sounds 
from  the  street,  the  acoustic  properties  of  the  room, 
are  all  of  importance. 

Religious  education  is  full  of  human  nature,  and 
human  nature  is  hungry.  A  dinner  should  be  served 
or  a  luncheon  in  the  interval  between  sessions.  It 
will  forward  the  discussion  of  the  theme  far  more 
than  any  other  means  could  do.  It  will  employ  the 
women  of  the  community  in  a  sympathetic  and 
happy  way.  It  does  not  matter  if  this  meal  is  served 
at  a  small  charge.  Its  efficiency  is  just  about  the 
same  as  if  it  were  free,  but  the  breaking  of  bread 
together  is  a  very  ancient  religious  experience. 

The  manager  of  a  school  of  religion  for  the  neigh- 
borhood must  take  into  account  all  the  religious 
bodies  of  the  neighborhood,  so  that  religious  co- 
operation is  a  detail  not  to  be  overlooked.  In  the 
minor  parts  of  the  program  there  are  places  for  all 
the  ministers  of  the  community,  at  least  for  the  sig- 
nificant selection  of  men  who  must  be  asked  if  the 
attention  of  all  is  desired.  All  doctrines  of  the  pres- 
ent day  pay  tribute  to  the  principle  of  religious  fed- 
eration. Everybody  believes  that  the  churches  ought 
to  get  together.  It  is  the  aspiration  of  the  common 
man  when  he  thinks  about  God,  so  that  the  arrange- 
ments of  such  an  institute  must  involve  courteous 
tributes  from  one  religious  body  to  another  and  the 
discussion  of  interests  common  to  all  the  churches. 

Most  vital  of  all,  the  institute  must  teach  about 
God.  Devotional  meetings  are  a  part  of  this.  The 
words  of  some  devout  man  are  a  part  of  it,  but  the 


L. 


word  of  God  in  our  day  and  generation  is  a  word 
about  human  needs — the  needs  of  poor  people.  If 
you  want  to  teach  God,  you  must  teach  some  lessons 
about  work,  about  poverty,  about  childhood,  about 
the  glorious  hopes  of  youth,  about  sorrow  and  its 
comfort,  about  sin  and  its  prevention,  about  sickness 
and  its  healing.  The  program  that  lacks  these  vital 
words  on  God's  behalf  will  teach  no  religion,  for  it 
has  none  to  tell. 

The  last  detail  and  of  most  practical  importance  is 
that  of  presiding.  Such  a  school  of  religion  must 
depend  on  a  person.  It  is  in  vain  to  appoint  honor- 
ary presiding  officers  because  they  are  prominent  in 
the  community  or  famous  in  the  world.  Such  a 
meeting  is  a  class  room  and  one  man  must  be  the 
teacher.  His  qualities  are  expressed  in  rigid  devo- 
tion to  the  program,  sympathy  with  the  audience 
and  easy  command  over  the  speakers,  and  over  those 
who  shall  discuss,  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
subject  itself. 

There  is  plenty  of  knowledge  and  plenty  of  char- 
acter and  teaching  ability  in  the  colleges,  seminaries 
and  universities.  Education  needs  to  be  broken  up 
into  bits  and  handed  out  to  the  hungry.  It  is  in  vain 
to  teach  the  ministers  a  gospel  of  efficiency,  if  the 
officers  of  their  churches  are  not  taught  the  same 
lesson.  The  lessons  of  religious  efficiency  must  be 
taught  to  the  people  in  command  in  the  small  com- 
munity, in  order  that  neighborhoods  may  be  built  up 
in  the  love  of  God  and  of  one  another.  The  religion 
we  need  is  to  love  God  in  our  home  town.  That  is  to 
say,  "To  love  the  Lord,  thy  God,  with  all  they  heart 
and  with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  to 
love, thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  To  teach  people  to 
do  this  is  the  business  of  the  Country  Life  Institute. 

Department  of  Church  and  Country  Life,  the  Board  of 
Home  Missions  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A., 
156  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York. 

Redfield  Brothers,  Inc.,  New  York 


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